Son dumped father’s coin collection into CoinStar machine for money to buy crack

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TORRINGTON, Ct. — Police say a man stole a valuable coin collection from his father and put it through a Coinstar machine at a local supermarket in order to get money to buy crack cocaine.

Leonard Rinaldi, 53, of Torrington, was arrested on larceny charges in connection with the theft of thousands of dollars worth of valuable coins from his father.

The coins, worth $8,000, were reported stolen on October 11th. Police say Rinaldi told them he stole the coins, took them to a CoinStar machine at a Stop and Shop and received approximately $60 for them. He then told police he used the money to buy crack cocaine. Police say he has a lengthy criminal record and was living at home with his father at the time of the theft.

Authorities have video of Rinaldi at the CoinStar machine and say that many of the coins that were not rejected by the machine because of their silver content have been recovered. Police don’t know where the rejected coins ended up.

Rinaldi is being held on $10,000 bond and is due back in court on December 14th to enter a plea.